| The Wiring hardware is based on the Atmel AVR8bit atmega family of microcontrollers. A very powerful set devices that suits from the simplest tasks to the most challenging requirements and future needs for prototyping interactive artifacts, connectivity and expansion. The table below shows a comparison between The Wiring hardware and other prototyping systems. |
| Wiring hardware V1: atmega128 / Wiring hardware V1.1 Sparkfun: atmega1281 / atmega2561 | Wiring S: atmega644p | BasicX | BasicStamp | PIC16F876 | atmega8 / atmega168 / atmega328 (Arduino) | |
| Digital I/O Pins | 54 | 32 | 16 | 15 | 22 | 11 |
| Memory | 128K / 128K / 256K | 64K | 32K | 2K | 14K | 8K / 16K / 32K |
| Analog inputs | 8 | 8 | 8 | n/a | n/a | 6 |
| External Interrupts |
8 |
3 | n/a | n/a | 1 | 2 |
| Hardware serial ports | 2 |
2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| USB | yes | yes | no | no | no | yes |
| Power | External 7-12V generic adapter or through the USB when connected to a computer | External 7-12V generic adapter or through the USB when connected to a computer | Requires power regulator circuit + adapter | Requires power regulator circuit + adapter | Requires power regulator circuit + adapter | External 7-12V generic adapter or through the USB when connected to a computer |
| PWM (analog) outputs | 6 | 6 | n/a | n/a | 2 | 3 |
| Programming language | C++ with Wiring Framework | C++ with Wiring Framework | basic | basic | basic | C++ with Wiring Framework |
| OS Supported | Windows, Mac OSX, Linux | Windows, Mac OSX, Linux | Windows, Mac OSX | Windows | Windows | Windows, Mac OSX, Linux |